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There are moments in my life where I feel like I’m on the cliff and about to tip over and plummet off into nothingness and then *hands up in the air* you’re rushing off down the tracks of the roller coaster, screaming and feeling alive!

“Always, Ransom” – Book 1 of Three Rivers Express is that Roller Coaster!

So exciting and terrifying at the same time. What a RUSH!

I’ve been a fan of the Pony Express for years! Three Rivers Express Station is from the collective imagination of both myself and Nan O’Berry! Both of us love the Pony Express and American History… especially the Old West!

Creating a town and populating it with store and business owners, Express Riders and the family that works at the Way Station and Livery of Three Rivers Express was a rush and scary too!

So Come and Meet the Riders and their Loves!

The Three Rivers Express Station has four books planned, one for each season of 1860 – the first year of the Pony Express!

“Always, Ransom”

The Express took men and rode them hard across the West. That adventuring spirit belonged to men full of life, ready for whatever met them on the trail, everything, except for love.

Ransom McCain was the last man hired to ride for the Three Rivers station, but he was chosen to take the first ride west because he could think on his feet. Tensions are high because there are people determined to make the express fail, and little does Ransom know that he would fall for a woman caught in the crossfire.

Delia Burroughs is a young woman with plenty of heart and the strength of spirit to help her family survive in the West. But one by one they’ve left until it’s just Delia and her father. His grief and struggles may make it impossible for her to leave and make a family of her own. When she met Ransom, she knew she’d found a man she could love, but forces are determined to take her new home from her and perhaps her chance at real love.

Ransom and Delia will have to decide if what’s happening between them is something they want to fight for, or will they let themselves be pulled apart by the danger they’re both facing.

The Three Rivers Express Series is a set of Sweet Western Historical Romance which will be written alternately by Reina Torres and Nan O’Berry

Starting with the Spring of 1860 when the Pony Express began their service of mail delivery between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California, each of the Three Rivers Express books will take on a new season and a different rider.

There are billions of people in the world, so it shouldn’t surprise me when I meet someone seemingly from another ‘walk of life’ and find a number of random connections that make us seem like old friends. Not only have Bob Newell and I survived a number of years of NANOWRIMO together, we have an unique mutual friend thousands of miles away, and share a deep and abiding love for Jane Austen’s works!

When I found out that he had published a novel, I couldn’t wait to chat about the excitement surrounding “Courting Jane.”

Q. What inspired the book ‘Courting Jane’?

A. ‘Courting Jane’ is the ultimate fantasy for a male Janeite. What could be better than courting Jane herself? I probably spent a good part of my teen and early adult years searching for a Jane Austen or Elizabeth Bennet analogue. But reality almost always falls short of a really good fantasy. On one level, that’s what ‘Courting Jane’ is.

Q. Have you written a time travel story before?

A. I have a novel in draft that involves time travel, and a novelette in the early stages. But they’re not in any way similar to ‘Courting Jane.’ One of them is a pure adventure story combining the far past, the present, and the far future of Waikiki, and the other is an “if I had it to do over again” romance, set in and around the present.

Q. What made this story perfect for time travel?

A. ‘Courting Jane,’ in order to be that ultimate fantasy, has to include time travel. How could a modern man court not just someone like Jane, but Jane herself? No one else but Jane would do for the purposes of this story. And by bringing in Jane herself as a major character, and postulating a sort of magical time travel, the novel implicitly raises the question about trying to act out a fantasy vs. living squarely in the real world. I’ve been asked what “really” happened in the story, and I’ve deliberately left that unanswered.

Q. Hawaii and England were both Island Kingdoms at one point in history, what are the challenges of linking them together in one story?

A. Actually part of ‘Courting Jane’ is set in Hawai`i because that’s where I live and write, and I just find it interesting to include Hawaiian settings. ‘Courting Jane’ could have worked if I had left all of the modern era chapters in Portland, for instance. But I did find it useful to make use of what is thought to be an “exotic” location where magical things might happen.

A. No, the first Austen I read was ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and it left a great impression. I pretty quickly read the other five, of course.

Author Bob Newell

Q. What elements of the novel really speak to you?

A. As I alluded to earlier, ‘Pride and Prejudice’ shaped the way I viewed relationships. This was back in the 60s and the way young men and young women interacted was in a great state of flux with all the rules changing. I liked the elegance and grace of Austen’s men and women. I liked the way men treated ladies with respect and courtesy. I liked the concept of gentlemanly behavior. And of course, I thought of Elizabeth as the ideal woman: intelligent, witty, independent, and sensitive. Note that beauty didn’t even make the list.

Q. Have you incorporated any elements from Jane Austen’s novels into ‘Courting Jane’?

A. I don’t think so, other than in the most general way. ‘Courting Jane’ isn’t one of those ‘Pride and Prejudice in Northern Alaska’ sort of things; it’s something completely different, as I said at the beginning, the ultimate fantasy of the male Janeite.

Q. What other experiences have you had in publishing?

A. Not a whole lot in the world of fiction. In non-fiction, I’ve produced and edited numerous books on the game of checkers, most of them ebooks although there was one print edition that actually sold pretty well.

A. Without a doubt, the people. I’ve met some of the most interesting folks, and of course they are for the most part kindred spirits. A Jane Austen obsession is something that, if you don’t share it, can come across as … well, unusual. But get in a group of like-minded Janeites, and anything can and does happen.

Q. Your cover is lovely! When you were working with your cover designer what was the ‘feeling’ you were hoping to display on the cover?

A. The cover artist is a young man in Wisconsin who really “got” it. I was looking for something that would convey a complex feeling of longing and possibility, and root that in both early 19th century Sidmouth and the modern era. It really worked. Seth (the artist) read some of the novel and got it right on the first try.

Q. Will there be a sequel? What’s next?

A. I’ve left the door open for one, and originally I thought this could become one of those three-novel series. But at this point, I don’t have plans to write a sequel, although that could change in the future. For now, I’m working on some “resettings.” I’m on the second draft of a resetting of Pride and Prejudice in the Kingdom of Hawai`i at the time of the fall of the monarchy. The working title is “From this Day, From this Night (No keia la, no keia po)” and I hope to have it published by fall 2016. I’ve got a first draft of “Hanai,” a retelling of Mansfield Park in modern Honolulu, in which a movie star couple in Kahala adopt a poor girl from Makaha. Finally, I’m in the outlining stages of an adaptation of the Emma story. I call it “Lapule” and set it in Hawaii’s missionary days.